Читать книгу Poems. Volume 2 - George Meredith - Страница 8

Assured of worthiness we do not dread

Competitors; we rather give them hail

And greeting in the lists where we may fail:

Must, if we bear an aim beyond the head!

My betters are my masters: purely fed

By their sustainment I likewise shall scale

Some rocky steps between the mount and vale;

Meanwhile the mark I have and I will wed.

So that I draw the breath of finer air,

Station is nought, nor footways laurel-strewn,

Nor rivals tightly belted for the race.

Good speed to them!  My place is here or there;

My pride is that among them I have place:

And thus I keep this instrument in tune.